


Ballet

by thecutestprince



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, One Shot, Trans Character, Trans Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 07:33:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11778393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecutestprince/pseuds/thecutestprince
Summary: Aunt May and Uncle Ben just want Peter to be happy. Ballet makes Peter happy. At least, it used to make him happy.Peter stops going to ballet practice, and May and Ben have to figure out how to go about the situation.Requested by soulsacrificed on tumblr.





	Ballet

**Author's Note:**

> Peter is youngin' here, not yet bitten by the spider. He recently came out as trans to May and Ben, and they're all trying to adjust.

"Are you going to ballet practice today, Peter?"

She stood in front of his closed door. She stood there hoping for the best.

"No!"

May frowned, swapping her keys from one hand to the other. This was practice number four that Peter refused to go to. Something was definitely up. 

Peter loved ballet! He loved practicing for May, showing off his double pirouette and asking her for help with his stretches. Unfortunately, those days had lessened, and Peter stopped moving around furniture to practice his dances. His disinterest in ballet was sudden. It worried May; she didn't want him to give up on something he so clearly loved. 

What was it? Was he being bullied in class? She knew things would be different ever since Peter had come out to them. There would be different things to tackle. This seemed to be one of them. 

May went for the doorknob, but stopped herself. Her fingers hovered, then curled closed. 

She should talk to Ben first.

 

Peter sat on the floor of his room, legs crossed, eyebrows furrowed. Across from him was his ballet uniform, crumpled into a pale, pink mess. He stared at his ballet shoes, at the scuffs on the toes. 

He curled and stretched his toes. He pouted. 

"Peter!" Aunt May called out. "Dinner's ready!"

Peter rushed to his bedroom door and swung it wide open. "What is it?"

"Take-out!"

Peter gasped softly and raced out to the kitchen. He skid to a stop, his socks sliding against the floor. "Chinese?"

"Of course." Aunt May winked at him.

"Yes!" Peter pounded a fist in the air. "That means we get to eat in the living room!"

She laughed. "Okay, just don't be messy!"

She handed him a plate, already filled with noodles and rice and orange chicken. "I won't!" he promised, and shuffled to the living room. 

Uncle Ben was already there, sitting on his favorite chair and watching TV. 

"Hi, Uncle Ben," Peter greeted him, then sat on the floor with his back against the couch. 

"Hey Pete."

"What're you watching?" Peter asked. He shoved a forkful of noodles past his lips.

"Gymnastics."

"Cool."

They sat there in silence, the silence broken by their chewing and the clank of fork against plate. Peter watched the TV absentmindedly. Uncle Ben always got to choose what they watched on take-out day, and he didn't mind it. Uncle Ben always choose good shows to watch. Last time, they got to watch an episode of Naruto. 

As time passed, Peter became more and more engaged with what was on the screen. Men rushing across the floor, flying forward into powerful front flips. They spun in the air a thousand times, and Peter was sure they were going to fall on their faces or trip forward. But they always landed just fine, and turned around and did it again. One of the men held a hand stand, then fell back on a curled back and stood straight up. How?! Peter's shoulder twitched. He wanted to do all of these things. 

A man raced forward. He flipped forward, spun three times, hit the floor, jumped up again, curled into himself, and flipped forward like twelve times. He landed with a small hop. Peter's head spun.

"Holy cow."

These men had to be superhuman.

"I used to do that."

Peter looked back at Uncle Ben. He smiled.

"Really?!"

"Oh yeah! I was in my high school's gymnastics team."

In the dark of that living room, Peter's eyes lit up. "Really?!"

"Yep."

"And I have pictures," Aunt May chimed in. The two turned towards the kitchen and saw her smiling at them. 

Uncle Ben flushed. "What?"

"I wanna see!" Peter shot up, his plate falling to the floor. Luckily, the plate had already been licked clean. 

Aunt May brought out a shoe box, and placed it on Uncle Ben's lap. May and Peter crowded around him. He sighed, and opened the box. It was full of photographs of Ben. Tiny gym shorts in all their glory. 

"You're so small!" Peter exclaimed, reaching forward and pulling out one of the pictures. Ben and May laughed. 

"Yes, I was pretty lanky. Where did you get these?"

"Your mother gave them to me. Early birthday present."

"Ah."

They went through the pictures together. Ben stretching, warming up. Ben in mid spin, and hilarious close-ups of his face after landing a jump he thought he would fail. 

"These are so cool, Uncle Ben!" Peter flipped through the pictures, and took in all of the different poses. There was one where he was doing the splits! Peter grinned. 

"Maybe I could take pictures like these when you do ballet, huh, Peter?"

Peter's face fell. He looked down at the pictures again. He let them fall on Ben's lap.

"Peter?" 

"I don't want to do ballet anymore."

He didn't look at them. He kept his eyes on the shoe box, body hunched over the arm rest of the chair, head down. Ben looked back at May, exchanging a worried glance. 

"How come?" Aunt May asked him, voice soft. "Don't you like ballet?"

"Yeah, but... every time I go, I feel like a girl. And I don't want people to think I'm a girl, when I'm not." Their studio is full of mirrors, and every time he looks at those mirrors, he blends in with the girls. Even with his short hair. He looks in those mirrors, and he feels like a girl. 

Ben looked at Peter. "You know, people used to tell me that gymnastics was only for girls."

Peter looked up at his Uncle Ben. "Really?"

"Yep. Even though I was really good at it. They told me I should quit, and do something manlier. Like wrestling." 

"Did you?" 

Uncle Ben shrugged. "I thought about it. But I liked gymnastics more." 

Ben shut the shoe box, and handed it back to May. He reached forward and ran a hand through Peter's short hair. He remembered when Peter first cut it. It looked horrible: choppy and uneven. Thankfully, the lecture he received from his aunt that evening was a quick one. The barber shop was closing; she had very little time to lecture him. When he came home that night, his hair looked much better. But more importantly, Peter looked much happier. He couldn't stop smiling that entire night, running his fingers through his freshly cut hair. 

That was all Ben wanted. All he wanted was for Peter to be that happy, and for Peter to be that comfortable with himself. 

"Boys can do ballet too, Peter. You know that, right?"

"I guess," Peter said, looking up at him. He was still pouting. 

"What if we got you into an all boys ballet class?"

Peter's eyes lit up. "Really?! Can we do that?"

"I'll be damned if I don't try," Uncle Ben exclaimed, and Aunt May nudged her elbow against him.

"We'll look for a new class, Peter," May said. "We just don't want to see you give up on something you love, okay?"

"Okay," Peter nodded. "Can I get a new outfit, too? I don't like my pink one."

"Sure," May agreed. 

"Thanks, Aunt May and Uncle Ben."

They both smiled at him, relieved. He marched to the center of the room and stood up tall.

"Wanna watch me practice?"

He spent half of the night practicing.

The other half was spent attempting to do the flips he saw on TV, and giving both May and Ben heart attacks doing so. 

**Author's Note:**

> i don't know crap about ballet or gymnastics. i think they are pretty. i wish i could flip like that. 
> 
> thanks for reading! feel free to send requests to my tumblr (thecutestprince)!


End file.
